EDIT: Quick guide and FAQ. These are impressions from Demo and will be updated if full game proves differently.

What is ME3's Co-op?ME3's co-op is a 4-person cooperative wave survival mode, similar to Horde mode from Gears of War, Exterminatus from Space Marine, etc.

You can deploy as any of 6 classes and 7 races. You can always be human male and human female, and each class has 2 other races. Engineers and Infiltrators can be Quarian or Salarian, Soldier and Sentinel can be Krogan or Turian, and Adepts and Vanguards can be Asari or Drell. Each Race/Class combo has a slightly different skill set, slightly different health/shield ratings, and slightly different dodges (e.g. Krogan and Turians don't dodge but have better health and shields). Each class shares an XP pool. When a class gets to level 20, the highest, you can promote that class to improve your Galaxy At War[TM] rating, and the class resets to level 1.

Each race/class combo has a separate 5-skill skill tree. 3 active skills like Tactical Cloak, Energy Drain, and Proximity Mine for Salarian Infiltrator, 1 passive racial skill, and 1 passive general health skill. Getting to level 20 in a class gets you 84 skill points, and maxing out the skill tree would take 105. So plan ahead.

The game is P2P hosted. Sorry to the Master Race. In the lobby the host will have a Leader near his/her name.

Once a game starts, you have 10 waves of enemies and 1 extraction wave (L4D style). 3 of those waves are objective waves, meaning enemies will respawn endlessly until you kill the targets, cap the objectives, or hack the objective, depending on the mission. These objective waves garner you credits, used for reinforcement packs (explained later). Otherwise you gain XP to level your class. XP is shared among all players, so don't rage because someone stole your kill. In the last wave, you have to defend endless enemies for 2 minutes and end up in the blue extraction zone before time runs out. (Pro-tip: don't run to extraction zone immediately. If you hang out further out, enemies will spawn further away from the extraction zone, giving you room to retreat if necessary.)

If you are downed, any teammate can come over and revive you before you bleed out. However, enemies can do a melee "execute" to eliminate chance of revival, and some enemies just kill you in a way that you bleed out immediately. If you have bled out, you will revive when the wave is completed and all enemies are killed.

There are 3 difficulties: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. You will be a liability on Silver if you are less than level 10, and pubbies will kick you unceremoniously. Higher difficulties mean more enemies, enemies having more health, and advanced enemies showing up earlier. In return, you get more XP and credits.

Finally, unlocks are given out in "reinforcement packs" which are bought by credits. These are random, like a customisable card game's booster packs. Yes, random. Instead of thinking it as "vendors aren't selling me the best," just think of it as "this is all we can scavenge from the ruins." Every weapon, modification, disposable item, and race/class combo has a different frequency rating & color, and the more expensive a reinforcement pack the more likely it gives you a rarer item.

That's long!Yeah, I'm long-winded.

What do the different disposable items do?Cobra Missiles: Heavy weapons capable of taking down (so far) any target with one hit.Survival Packs: Use while still alive, and they will bring pack shields and health to full, though not immediately.Medi-Gels: Use while downed to stand up immediately.Ammo Packs: Use to resupply your ammo immediately.

What types of enemies are there?There are 3 different enemy factions: Cerberus, Reaper, and Geth. Since Cerberus was in the demo, we have a better idea of their capabilities, and they're basically the same enemies from the single-player.

What advice do you have for a new playerThere are lots, but here are some simple tips to being an asset and not a liability:

Stick with your squad and stay in cover. You're pretty weak and it's easy to get lost and/or surrounded.

Learn where the ammo dumps are ASAP. Your ammo will refill a little between waves, but not grenades and you will eventually need to restock in a wave.

Watch for enemy patterns and prioritize enemies. Penny-Arcade's advice for TF2 applies here as a general principle http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/09/21. Some enemies, like Cerberus Combat Engineer and Phantom, are highest priority. You'll learn to hate them and target them first.

What is this Galaxy at War thing?Okay, Galaxy at War is 2 values: a "Galactic Readiness" rating which is a percentage, and a "War Assets" rating which is a pure number. Your Galactic Readiness is 50% by default. How good your ending is depends on the Galactic Readiness multiplied with your War Assets. You raise Galactic Readiness through playing MP, and you collect War Assets through the Singleplayer, promoting level 20 MP characters, and via the iOS tie-in. You can see your overall progress in the War Room of the Normandy, but you can check on Galactic Readiness from Bioware's social site and in the multiplayer section.

Do I have to play co-op to get the best ending?That is debatable. By all reports, it is theoretically possible for someone who did exactly the right things in ME1, ME2, and ME3 to get the absolute best ending without doing multiplayer. That is, they can collect enough War Assets to get a high rating even with the default 50% Galactic Readiness. However, for people who perhaps aren't as interested in finding every little asset here and there, some of which are scattered on non-mission planets, it will be difficult.

My <insert class here> is level 20. Now what?This is the level cap so you won't gain any more experience. However, you can "promote" a level 20 character, which does the following three things:

Add a permanent 75 (or so) war asset to all future games

Increase N7 rating by 10

Resets the class (note the class, not just the race/class combo) to level 1

Of course, you can keep on playing to earn credits for weapon packs. Personally I'd say you should always have at least one character level 15-20 to grind Silver and Gold, but that's just me.(EDIT: You keep your customization options for the race/combo when you promote.)

What are the power combinations like Biotic Explosion and Tech Burst?Some powers set up a combo and some powers detonate a combo. The amount of damage dealt depends on the combined ranks and some skills of BOTH powers. The type of damage dealt depends on the source power only. More detailed information can be found at BSN post and Mass Effect Wikia. (Another link written by developer on power combos: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic ... /9822648/1)

I'm at an ammo box, but it's not giving me any grenades!Ammo supplies have a cooldown that is 0s on Bronze, ~20s on Silver, and <placeholder cuz I don't know> on Gold. The bullet cooldown is personal, but the grenade cooldown applies to every player and every ammo box. So if ANY player picks up a grenade from ANY ammo box, EVERY player and EVERY ammo suffers the cooldown. And on Silver/Gold you pick up only one grenade at a time.

So if you're on Silver/Gold with 2+ grenade classes, you basically should run by an ammo box whenever you can to keep your grenades topped off. Also, note that the disposable thermal packs also restore your grenade count and ignore cooldown.

Armor reduces each individual damage (i.e. each bullet) by some amount (never 100%). This means that for the same DPS, one sniper round does more damage than many SMG bullets because the damage reduction is applied per bullet. Armor Piercing ammo decreases this damage reduction ability of the armor, as does Armor Piercing Mod.

Some weapons, namely Javelin, Widow and such, naturally have Penetration ability, in that they can shoot through a certain amount of cover and still do damage. Armor does not count as cover, though Guardian Shields do. However, abilities stack, so the Armor Penetration mod on a sniper rifle will increase the penetration distance and reduce the armor damage rating.

Shield & Barriers absorb damage but have an additional property. If an attack completely eliminates the shield, the leftover damage is reduced by some amount before applied to the underlying health/armor. On Bronze it's 50%, on Silver it's 75%, on Gold it's 100%. Different pellets of the same shotgun count as different attacks, and a power combo is also technically 2 different attacks.

2012 April 5th:What are these "Operations" being mentioned?BioWare has been running "Operations" every weekend from 5pm Pacific on Friday to 5am Pacific on Monday. They each have a unique name, and they are special promotions. There have been 2 types of Operations: one that gives a 25% XP bonus for everyone, and one that gives rewards only if certain objectives are met. There are actually 2 objectives: an individual one, like promoting 2 characters, and a community one, like the entire community promoting 150,000 characters. If the community objective is met, EVERYBODY gets a "Victory Pack" which has 5 of each disposable. If you meet the individual objective, you get a Commendation Pack, which includes a N7 weapon from the collector's edition.

Note: You must have "multiplayer" feedback turned on in order to partake in operations, and as of this writing, you must also play on PC or 360.

What are these "N7" weapons?Ooh boy. Short answer from Draxilith:

Draxilith wrote:

The "N7 Weapons" (in Commendation Packs) are the Hurricane (SMG), Eagle (Pistol), Crusader (Shotgun), or Valiant (Sniper). These events are the only way to get/upgrade them, as far as I am aware.

Anything else that says "N7", like the Javelin or Talon, is "merely" an ultra-rare and can be found in standard packs.

As a side note, "N7 weapons" are inherently also ultra-rare, but again, they cannot be acquired through regular packs. Please be clear in your posts and use the term "Ultra-Rare" or black for Javelin, Saber, and the like, and only reserve the term "N7 weapons" for the 4 explicitly listed above.

BTW, these "N7 weapons" are available in the Single-Player only for those who bought the Collector's Edition or the Digital Deluxe Edition. There is a 5th N7 weapon, the Valkryie assault rifle, but it's only available in single-player and only to those who pre-ordered via Gamestop.

2012 April 15th:What are the weapon stats? The bars don't seem to make sense.You are perceptive. The bars of the weapon stats are NOT all on the same scale. Some helpful soul has posted this Spreadsheet of actual weapon stats from the game files: Weapon Stats.

Note: I am uncertain whether this spreadsheet includes the patch numbers or not. The original sheet doesn't, but this page includes the new weapons, so ...

2012 April 17th:I heard some weapons got buffed? Where do you get this information?Very obtusely, BioWare lists balance changes on its forums here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic ... ex/9544143. In general most balances are buffs for underused weapons rather than nerfs for overpowered ones, though exceptions happen: Decoy, Combat Drone, and both Turrets were nerfed to be able to distract fewer enemies, for example.

Origin inputted. I will more than likely be playing through the SP game before I jump into co-op, as is my custom. Though I'm sure this thread will force me (and by force I mean tempt with tasty treats) to abandon the SP halfway through to jump in on some co-op goodness.

Added. It occurs to me that, beyond actually cooperating to make objectives, that playing with Arsians might be especially important for this game if only to avoid spoilers. I could totally see some assholes on XBL piping up mid-game about massive plot points just to screw with people.

anyone know if they will ever allow bots to work with this? in some kind of lan situation, like special ops in mw3 or are we always gonna be forced to rely on online people. With supplimental playthroughs the amount of people online will get thinner and thinner as the years passed. Meanwhile ive played all the games a few times through years after their release.

anyone know if they will ever allow bots to work with this? in some kind of lan situation, like special ops in mw3 or are we always gonna be forced to rely on online people. With supplimental playthroughs the amount of people online will get thinner and thinner as the years passed. Meanwhile ive played all the games a few times through years after their release.

Unlikely if it's not there already, the key is that you can still get the best ending without the MP. So for a few months, everyone plays the MP and enjoys it. Then after everyone has moved on to the next game, those that continue to return to the game can do it 'the SP way.' Or you'll always have communities like this to try and wrangle a game together.

well hopefully one can be good enough without a team then. I like the idea of survival challenges, but being reliant on a bunch of people on the net not so much. I'm also gonna add hear that I played the coop on the ps3. its fun, but the framerates on ps3 (single player) were terrible, with frame troubles when the game was loading the enemies in multiplayer. I wont be buying the game on pc either, since theres origin. I'll wait until there is some alternate option. Day One DLC of important content is also BS to me too.

This is true but if you're doing things completely solo, you have to get comfortable with wiping on wave 3 repeatedly until you get up to level 6 or so and wiping on 6 until level 12 or so. There are also objectives at locations that are simply not doable: upload at the spawn points on both maps, unlock the things at exposed points with long corridors (one on white, three on ghost). Infiltrators can do the latter and Vanguards the former but that's about it.

I've cleared Bronze with all characters except Soldier (I don't like soldiers, even Krogan ones) but the process is fairly slow at ~23-26 minutes except for Vanguards where I'm at 17-18m. A good team bronze clear is 14-16 minutes by comparison. If galactic readiness carries over in your online account, it's not a big deal but I suspect soloing enough characters to 20 to boost your single player game ending to take an unpleasantly long time. The problem with adding a second person is that lag makes things noticeably harder with the exception of sniping, which for some reason seems to mostly avoid lag problems. IMO you don't really make up for the lag and the enemies not always coming to you until you get 3 people.

Also does anyone get how the new tech armor skill works? Now when it explodes I still have it. if its the case where it is automatically applying whether i push the button or not-- thats really annoying since sometimes I want to use another power instead for the rest of the fight.

Also does anyone get how the new tech armor skill works? Now when it explodes I still have it. if its the case where it is automatically applying whether i push the button or not-- thats really annoying since sometimes I want to use another power instead for the rest of the fight.

I seriously have no idea how tech armor works after playing only a Sentinel in demo. No clue. I kind of guess that maybe it's auto-on, but you press the button to make it go boom? Except sometimes I've pressed the button and brought it up instead (whereas I've also pressed the button when I'm out of shields/whatever and had it boom).

I'm sure it's explained somewhere or in a manual or something, but I haven't bothered to check. I figure I'll work it out when the launch comes.

Also does anyone get how the new tech armor skill works? Now when it explodes I still have it. if its the case where it is automatically applying whether i push the button or not-- thats really annoying since sometimes I want to use another power instead for the rest of the fight.

I seriously have no idea how tech armor works after playing only a Sentinel in demo. No clue. I kind of guess that maybe it's auto-on, but you press the button to make it go boom? Except sometimes I've pressed the button and brought it up instead (whereas I've also pressed the button when I'm out of shields/whatever and had it boom).

I'm sure it's explained somewhere or in a manual or something, but I haven't bothered to check. I figure I'll work it out when the launch comes.

Haha YES, its really confusing. Why would i detonate a skill when I could just use another power, when that one will set off already by being shot. The main draw back of tech armor has always been its cool down time. With this auto apply feature when the game is on hard I imagine I dont even be able to use the sentinels main special ability because it means your cool down (of like 30 seconds mind you) will be dependent on whether you get shot. Its crazy.

Also does anyone get how the new tech armor skill works? Now when it explodes I still have it. if its the case where it is automatically applying whether i push the button or not-- thats really annoying since sometimes I want to use another power instead for the rest of the fight.

You can turn it on instantly and without cooldown. It reduces damage taken but does NOT boost shields. Detonating does damage and puts you on global cooldown. The only use I've heard of is detonating during the Phantom OHK animation to get yourself out of it but I haven't had a chance to test that out.

It was awful in the demo on the human and okay on the turian with their increased durability stats.

Also does anyone get how the new tech armor skill works? Now when it explodes I still have it. if its the case where it is automatically applying whether i push the button or not-- thats really annoying since sometimes I want to use another power instead for the rest of the fight.

You can turn it on instantly and without cooldown. It reduces damage taken but does NOT boost shields. Detonating does damage and puts you on global cooldown. The only use I've heard of is detonating during the Phantom OHK animation to get yourself out of it but I haven't had a chance to test that out.

It was awful in the demo on the human and okay on the turian with their increased durability stats.

Ah ok then, so it is radically different. I much preferred the boosted shield rather than damage reduction, however perhaps that was because it was OP? Since its damage reduction, does it reduce damage to the shield AND health or just health(as I assume thats what it protects). Secondly, since the shield is no longer the breaking point of the skills blast, what is the breaking point? Do we have a bar to indicate? Thanks!

Also does anyone get how the new tech armor skill works? Now when it explodes I still have it. if its the case where it is automatically applying whether i push the button or not-- thats really annoying since sometimes I want to use another power instead for the rest of the fight.

I seriously have no idea how tech armor works after playing only a Sentinel in demo. No clue. I kind of guess that maybe it's auto-on, but you press the button to make it go boom? Except sometimes I've pressed the button and brought it up instead (whereas I've also pressed the button when I'm out of shields/whatever and had it boom).

I'm sure it's explained somewhere or in a manual or something, but I haven't bothered to check. I figure I'll work it out when the launch comes.

Haha YES, its really confusing. Why would i detonate a skill when I could just use another power, when that one will set off already by being shot. The main draw back of tech armor has always been its cool down time. With this auto apply feature when the game is on hard I imagine I dont even be able to use the sentinels main special ability because it means your cool down (of like 30 seconds mind you) will be dependent on whether you get shot. Its crazy.

I only have 360 demo experience to work from, but it was not auto-on for me. The first time you hit the button it turns 'on' and you get glowy armor which gives you a ~25% damage resist, but you have something like +50% cooldown on everything else while it's on. Turning it on does not affect cooldown. Hitting the power again detonates it and turns it 'off' and causes cooldown to happen. This should be in the power explanation if you highlight the power name (to the left of the upgrade tree).

EDIT:Beaten, but here's additional info- it reduces ALL damage, no matter health/shields, and never breaks/turns off until you hit the button again. Think of it more as a 'mode' than a power, since it is indefinite.

Thanks for all the info guys. I looked it up last night but found little. ah wow so it increases cool down on ALL abilities whilst it is in use? Thats crazy. Did it always do that or is that new. I never really noticed before, but you never really play 2 classes side by side anyway.

I much preferred the boosted shield rather than damage reduction, however perhaps that was because it was OP?

You and everybody else. I died a LOT during the demo because my shield would go down and I'd hit it to bring the shields up again only to realize that not only was that the wrong move but it also threw everything on cooldown so you were completely screwed. There's a lot of things they can do to fix it but for those of us who haven't unlocked the game, we'll have to see how things pan out.

redwood36 wrote:

ah wow so it increases cool down on ALL abilities? Thats crazy. Did it always do that or is that new.

It did not. It's the only class ability with a downside. It also reset ally abilities on use so it was a defensive+offensive ability with caster allies.

I much preferred the boosted shield rather than damage reduction, however perhaps that was because it was OP?

You and everybody else. I died a LOT during the demo because my shield would go down and I'd hit it to bring the shields up again only to realize that not only was that the wrong move but it also threw everything on cooldown so you were completely screwed. There's a lot of things they can do to fix it but for those of us who haven't unlocked the game, we'll have to see how things pan out.

redwood36 wrote:

ah wow so it increases cool down on ALL abilities? Thats crazy. Did it always do that or is that new.

It did not. It's the only class ability with a downside. It also reset ally abilities on use so it was a defensive+offensive ability with caster allies.

Wow, I wonder who at bioware had their cereal pissed in by a Sentinel. Talk about getting torn a new one. To me the Sentinel class is the go to class for a uniquely rounded experience, and it leaves you open to all the class options. That and its also very defensive, good for the hardest difficulty. Now, its really just the class with warp and overload...=_=

Wow, I wonder who at bioware had their cereal pissed in by a Sentinel. Talk about getting torn a new one. To me the Sentinel class is the go to class for a uniquely rounded experience, and it leaves you open to all the class options. That and its also very defensive, good for the hardest difficulty. Now, its really just the class with warp and overload...=_=

They just repurposed it to be a 'tank' class- the Turian sentinel gets ~600 Health and ~1000 shields wihtout bonuses in the demo IIRC, compared to most humans having 500/500. Add damage resist on that, and you can take some hits, which helps your adepts and squishy drellguards (500/300)

They just repurposed it to be a 'tank' class- the Turian sentinel gets ~600 Health and ~1000 shields wihtout bonuses in the demo IIRC, compared to most humans having 500/500. Add damage resist on that, and you can take some hits, which helps your adepts and squishy drellguards (500/300)

Sentinel has always been a tank class.

A Bastion Sentinel in ME had ~1600 shields, regenerated 40 shields/sec, and could boost 1k every 15s or so. Was easily as strong as immunity tanking for soldiers unless you were up against Rachni or Krogan. For comparison, most shields in the game were in the 400-600 range. I did all the base missions by running in and face tanking 4-5 enemies on hardcore difficulty (never did manage a third playthrough for insanity).

A ME2 sentinel had ~500% shields for the initial burst and another ~200% shields every 6 seconds on top of a 18m shockwave when the initial shield broke and a reset of ally cooldowns. On Insanity difficulty you can tank 2 enemies continuously and up to about 5 in bursts. If you remember the colossus fight on Tali's recruitment mission, I do that fight by running straight up the middle of the map and shotgunning the colossus.

The tanking available on the Turian isn't bad but it's nowhere close to what you could do with a Sentinel in the previous games.

I much preferred the boosted shield rather than damage reduction, however perhaps that was because it was OP?

You and everybody else. I died a LOT during the demo because my shield would go down and I'd hit it to bring the shields up again only to realize that not only was that the wrong move but it also threw everything on cooldown so you were completely screwed. There's a lot of things they can do to fix it but for those of us who haven't unlocked the game, we'll have to see how things pan out.

I think that was my biggest issue, just using it incorrectly. Even with it on, my cooldowns were stupidly fast since I was sporting only an assault rifle. But I'd get into crisis situations, and going off of old instinct would tag it to bring my defenses up--only instead I would be deactivating it and bringing my abilities on cooldown and my damage reduction off. Oops. Death.

Wow, I wonder who at bioware had their cereal pissed in by a Sentinel. Talk about getting torn a new one. To me the Sentinel class is the go to class for a uniquely rounded experience, and it leaves you open to all the class options. That and its also very defensive, good for the hardest difficulty. Now, its really just the class with warp and overload...=_=

They just repurposed it to be a 'tank' class- the Turian sentinel gets ~600 Health and ~1000 shields wihtout bonuses in the demo IIRC, compared to most humans having 500/500. Add damage resist on that, and you can take some hits, which helps your adepts and squishy drellguards (500/300)

Hmm well now I'm at odds with my class selection. I always picked sentinel for its versatility and resilience. If because of its resilience it is no longer truly versatile (ie, that you can't use the powers that were available to you with the comfort of a Biotic or a Tech class) then I don't see the draw of picking the class any longer. I suppose there's experimentation, however its always nice to get these things right on the first play through.

Hmm well now I'm at odds with my class selection. I always picked sentinel for its versatility and resilience. If because of its resilience it is no longer truly versatile (ie, that you can't use the powers that were available to you with the comfort of a Biotic or a Tech class) then I don't see the draw of picking the class any longer. I suppose there's experimentation, however its always nice to get these things right on the first play through.

Playing a Turian Sentinel is a lot like playing a non-assault ME2 sentinel. You have warp and overload so you get the mix and Turians have enough shields to be able to take some hits but they can't tank. Their heavy melee is actually really fast and strong. If you use an Avenger or Mantis only, your cooldowns are around the ME2 level. It's really not bad and TA works reasonably well with the kit. It wasn't a lot of fun with the heavy weapons loadout in the SP mission for the demo and it's not a lot of fun on multiplayer human sentinel with their warp/throw power spamming combo.

Playing a Turian Sentinel is a lot like playing a non-assault ME2 sentinel. You have warp and overload so you get the mix and Turians have enough shields to be able to take some hits but they can't tank. Their heavy melee is actually really fast and strong. If you use an Avenger or Mantis only, your cooldowns are around the ME2 level. It's really not bad and TA works reasonably well with the kit. It wasn't a lot of fun with the heavy weapons loadout in the SP mission for the demo and it's not a lot of fun on multiplayer human sentinel with their warp/throw power spamming combo.

Therefore its not really a go to selection if you want heavy weapons as well in SP. I dont really care-- all i need is a mattock (SP?) or a heavy pistol. but generally your ammo runs out when fighting the mechs. Ho hum decisions decisions. I'll have to see how generous it is with ammo I suppose.